With reports spilling out the Carl Pavano is seeing Dr. James Andrews and the are rumors circling around that he will the dreaded Tommy John surgery. So much for landing on the DL with a Mild Elbow Strain. Raise your hand if your surprised. This surgery would effectively put an end to his 2007 season, as well as the 08 season, and his entire 4 year contract with the New York Yankees.Worst Contract in the History of Sports
3 Years ago Brian Cashman opened up the piggy bank and signed Carl Pavano, coming off his only good season in the majors, to a 4 year 39.95 million dollar contract with an option for a 5th year at 15 million or a 2 million dollar buyout. I think they'll opt for the latter. In the history of professional sports you will be very hard pressed to find a worse contract, there are the Vin Bakers and Allan Houston's of the world, big time money guys who had their injury/binge drinking problems. But both were very good players before their contract signing and atleast had some production in the league post. There are bad football deals every year, Neal O'Donnell rings a bell. But those guys all played games and contributed, bad or else wise. In baseball Red Sox fans might throw out Matt Clement, but hell he made an All Star team and threw 32 games his first season. The only comparable that comes to mind in baseball is Darren Dreifort who was given a 5 year 55 million dollar contract by the Dodgers in 2000 after his best season. Let's give a quick comparison:
Dreifort
2001 LA 4 7 5.13 16 16 0 0 0 0 94.2 89 62 54 11 6 47 91
2003 LA 4 4 4.03 10 10 0 0 0 0 60.1 58 29 27 6 0 25 67
2004 LA 1 4 4.44 60 0 0 0 1 4 50.2 43 25 25 5 0 36 63
Pavano
2005 NYY 4 6 4.77 17 17 1 1 0 0 100.0 129 66 53 17 8 18 56
2007 NYY 1 0 4.76 2 2 0 0 0 0 11.1 12 7 6 1 0 2 4
Big advantage goes to Dreifort for being a better signing. 26 starts and 60 relief appearances over a 5 year stretch with 9 wins. Pavano had 19 starts and 5 wins over a 4 year period. I highly doubt one can find an athlete who was given that kind of money, with such limited track record who performed and played as little as Pavano. It's the worst signing in the history of the New York Yankees, baseball, sports and quite possibly the history of the human race. He should never step foot in the city of New York again. And Brian Cashman should give some of his paycheck back to Steinbrenner for making such a stupid signing.
The Pavano Rule
Something good has to come out of a situation this bad. And the Commissioners office needs to take notice and Major League Baseball should enforce what I would like to call the Pavano rule. Each franchise should be able to cut one player every season without repercussions. If that is too much than increase the time frame to two calendar years. Each franchise may only cut one player within two calendar years from the date of the prior cut. No player the likes of Pavano should be allowed to rob both the fans and the franchise of hard earned cash for such useless services. Baseball will never be as strong as the NFL when it comes to releasing players at will, but something needs to be done to kill off decisions like this and improve the league and this would be a gigantic step in the right direction.
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